Tech Diver Stress & Rescue

[FishDiver]

What is the consensus of the tech community on the value of Stress
& Rescue training from a major agency?

I can imagine at least two avenues of thought:

1. Tech diving entails more risk than rec diving and increased need for rescue training.

2. Tech divers are more experienced, better trained, know and trust their buddies, and plan their dives better than rec divers therefore minimizing the need for rescue training. Rescue training is for rec divers paired with "insta-buddies" of unknown experience and training.

Thoughts?

 

[*Floater*]

I've heard both good and bad reviews about the course, but I have yet to take it myself. Having said that I don't like that some agencies impose it as a requirement for their tech courses because if it's really necessary then why isn't it necessary for advanced open water courses as well? Or why not just teach it as part of AOW or tech courses, or maybe even teach some parts of during basic open water?

 

[Ben_ca]

I did Rescue with my local DIR crowd... 4 students in doubles & BP&W's... 2 instructors...

From my classmates I gather that is was way harder than a regular rescue class (Singles, traditional BC's quick releases ect...).

The looks and comments we got from some of the divers at the training sites were "Why the heck are you punishing your selves?" But the reality of it is: These are the guys I dive with 90% of the time... if not them people with identical (DIR) gear... so why not train as you would fight?

But anyway... That what I did and it works for me... YMMV

 

[Doc Intrepid]

There was recently a fatality involving a technical diver some 60 miles off Virginia Beach, VA. Circumstances involved strong surface currents and waves of 3'-5', along with increasing winds.

There were six other technical divers on the boat when the buddy team surfaced. One team member was trying to keep the head of the other above the waves, but was struggling in the surface current. One of the other divers onboard jumped in wearing post-dive clothing. Crew struggled to remove deco bottles and scooters at the swim platform. Waves and currents made surface movement of unconscious and semi-conscious divers challenging, and the pitching of the stern made getting both divers onboard dangerous to all involved. Despite the fact that everyone responding was a highly skilled diver, they had not trained together to perform rescues. An after-action debrief was held to discuss lessons learned.

I am strongly in favor of stress and rescue training for all divers. Like Ben said above, if you tend to dive with one group of divers frequently then taking a class with all of your regular dive buddies would be a good idea. There are more gear issues to deal with, and often other issues involving gasses and maladies. As a group, all involved can benefit even from group discussion regarding various scenarios that may happen and how the group might respond to them. The life you save might be your own.

Doc

 

[AZ Desert Diver]

I just finishing my Rescue course a few weeks ago with my instructor being a Tech Diver. We held a special session where he suited up in all of his tech gear with 2 deco bottles and we walked through a few different way we would rescue/assist a tech diver and talked a lot about it as well. It was a good session and it opened our eyes on how to rescue/assist a tech diver.

We had a major question that came up, "what would you do if you had an deco obligation but you were tending to an unresponse patient?", since Tech Divers are taught to "self resuce" and individuals are also taught to dive their own plan only. One of things that we came up with you could attach a lift bag to them and send them to the surface on their own and hopefully the odds would be in their favor. Because if you assited them to the surface you could be come a "vic/patient" as well.

Another thing we worked with was the different equipment configurations that a Tech Dive has and what it takes to get them out of it. This is something that most rec. divers would know where to start at, because the tech set up is so different.

 

[ianr33]

I just finishing my Rescue course a few weeks ago with my instructor being a Tech Diver. We held a special session where he suited up in all of his tech gear with 2 deco bottles and we walked through a few different way we would rescue/assist a tech diver and talked a lot about it as well. It was a good session and it opened our eyes on how to rescue/assist a tech diver.

Just wondering,did you talk about Oxygen toxicity and how to deal with it? That is much more likely to be a problem to technical divers than recreational divers.

 

[TSandM]

I thought Rescue was well worth while. There were a lot of things in the class to think about, and some specific techniques which were good to learn. Frankly, the majority of rescue situations are going to involve either a physiologic catastrophe (which can happen to ANYBODY) or panic (which can also happen to anybody in the right circumstances), and technical divers, with their training, may be less susceptible to the latter, but are certainly not protected from the former.

The one thing I would say is that I wish I had taken the class from instructors who were familiar with technical diving and technical equipment. I got very little help with specific questions regarding the adaptation of their basic approach to my particular gear.

 

[Taipeidiver]

Rescue was a good course, covered some good material, but not really in sufficient depth nor with sufficient repetition for real proficiency. Similarly, my divemaster training covered all the rescue material again, but my instructor required much more repetition and to demonstration quality no matter what the conditions were. Stress and task-loading was used as an important instructional method, and I am sure that I a better diver for it. I maintain that my surviving the tsunami in Thailand, in spite of actually being in a couple of waves, is due in no small part to this type of training.

Since then I have completed Adv. Nitrox, Deco and Extended Range courses. The instructors have placed a great deal of emphasis on in-water rescue and stress scenarios - a nice way of saying they made things extremely difficult. These scenarios have been much more complicated and, well, stressful than either of my rescue and divemaster courses. Again, I believe that the standard of my diving can only have been improved as a result.

In summary, I believe that stress and rescue training is an important part of diver training. It should be progressive (so as not to overload the student), perhaps starting with basic self-rescue techniques like SMB deployment and dealing with cramp, and get more involved as the student advances. It should also be relevant to the type of diving which you do - if you are ice diving or decompression diving then train for scenarios under these circumstances. Like a first-aid certificate, rescue techniques should also be practiced regularly.

On a final note - I've obviously gone on long enough - The objective is not to scare divers, or to make things so difficult that people give up the sport for good, but to equip divers with a "toolbox" of knowledge and skills that are practical and relevant.

 

[Hoyden]

I think that Rescue should be a requirement for all tec classes. It was for the tec path that I chose. The shop where I have done most of my training is a very tec oriented shop and we covered dealing with divers in tec gear in my rescue class. I even had the opportunity to "rescue" an unresponsive diver in his psd gear - man, those guys carry alot of weight. In both of the tec classes that I have taken, we covered and practiced rescue scenarios with the same level of attention that we paid to all other aspects of training. This is definitely a topic that I discuss/practice with my tec diving buddies and I wouldn't make what I consider a tec dive with a buddy who had unknown rescue training/skills.